2 weeks later
"Urghhh…"
Fan Zhi groaned in pain, his whole body aching.
Surrounding him was darkness, only the vague presence of other people was felt around him. Forcing his eyelids open, Fan Zhi saw a world of blurs.
Blinking rapidly to dispel the sleep from his eyes, Fan Zhi vision gradually cleared.
Upon the regaining of his vision, Fan Zhi discovered that he was lying in his bed surrounded by his parents, his grandfather and someone he recalls to be one of the Clan's physicians.
His parents and grandfather are standing around a mel away from the bed while the physician was standing right next to his chest.
Fan Zhi attempted to get up, pain and cramps erupting throughout his body the instant he moved an inch.
"Kid, you have been unconscious for two weeks, wait a bit before you try to get up please."
Fan Zhi stopped trying to move when he heard the physician's words.
Patiently waiting for the physician to finish his scrutiny, Fan Zhi's parents moved to his side in a flash when the physician stepped back.
Fan Hui's arms instantly circled Fan Zhi's neck and shoulders on the bed, squeezing tightly.
Streams of liquid wet Fan Zhi as Fan Hui cried in relief.
Fan Zhi could see tears even in his father's eyes as he stood behind his wife.
For several minutes, apart from the sound of Fan Hui sobbing, the room was enveloped in silence.
It took almost 5 minutes for Fan Hui to calm herself down and stop her tears.
Once she had done so, Fan Cheng spoke up.
"Hey, what happened Fan Zhi? Did you try advancing incorrectly or something?"
Fan Zhi close his eyes for a moment, formulating his response.
Opening his eyes, Fan Zhi calmly answered his grandfather after checking the [Elemental Divinity Scripture].
"I advanced correctly, it was something else. I think… Ahhh, here found it. The [Elemental Divinity Scripture] doesn't recommend advancing all three cultivations at the same time until you have broken through to the second Domain of each. So, advancing each individually until the Formation Domain, Consolidation Domain and 2nd Evolution Domain for qi, soul and physique cultivation respectively. That is the way it is usually done because apparently, the first strike of tri-fused tribulation in any of the tribulations in the first domain would kill."
Fan Cheng falls silent, lost in thought.
Almost absentmindedly, Fan Heng questions Fan Zhi, shouting as he reached the end of his line of questions.
"So, what was different with you? How did you survive? How the hell does this scripture even work?!"
Fan Zhi remains composed, answering in a weary voice.
"To answer the questions in the easiest order. The scripture will basically summon a Heavenly Tribulation once I reach the limit of each level of cultivation for each of the three cultivation paths of qi, soul and physique that the scripture has cultivation arts for. Then, during a tribulation, the cultivator is meant to circulate a special secret art after the first strike of the Heavenly Tribulation to weaken the following strikes of the tribulation by absorbing the energy within it to strengthen the cultivator. As I mentioned before, the Heavenly Tribulations will fuse together and grow exponentially stronger if you trigger them at the same time. You are not meant to do this until the 2nd Domain.
What I did differently, however, was I triggered all three tribulations at the same time for the very first stage of cultivation without realising the consequences. It was far stronger than I expected, therefore in desperation, I circulated the secret art before the tribulation even launched its first strike in. The tribulation froze and was being absorbed while I had to suffer the mental strain of holding back the Will of Heaven inherent in the tribulation. I managed to survive the pressure of the Will of Heaven and absorbed all the energy in the tribulation; that allowed me to survive."
"WHY!"
Fan Hui screamed piercingly.
Fan Zhi looked at her in surprise and confusion.
Fan Hui, in response, grabbed Fan Zhi and wouldn't let go.
As Fan Zhi is hugged tightly, Fan Hui whimpers.
"Why…. Why would you risk your life… so… foolishly?"
Fan Zhi places his arm around his mother, soothingly rubbing her back gently.
Haltingly, Fan Zhi tries to explain.
"Mother… You don't know what it's like… to watch others grow and become strong… while you… you cannot improve even an ounce. If it wasn't for father… risking his life that day… and that man's kindness... I would not even be alive. I don't care if I am strong; I don't care if I am weak, I just want to feel myself improving. I may not have been able to cultivate and improve in strength, but I fell in love with the idea of training itself and then... by relation, I fell in love with cultivation as well and the feeling it brings. That…. That is why I did this because I love it… and that gives me the will to risk my life, just to cultivate further… just to improve."
Silence permeates the room after Fan Zhi's voice full weariness sounds out languidly.
Fan Cheng just looks at Fan Zhi, watching him like he was trying to discern any other motives behind Fan Zhi's words.
Unable to find anything, Fan Cheng sighs audibly, standing up and stretching lazily.
"Well, there is only 2 months until the tournament begins. We are around a month's travel away from the location of the tournament, so you have about a month to consolidate your cultivation Fan Zhi. Come to visit me when you are up and about. I guess I will leave you guys to… converse with each other."
Fan Cheng starts to walk out of the room, stopping at the entrance to the room.
Turning back around, Fan Cheng addresses Fan Zhi and his parents sternly.
"Ohh and I almost forgot… Fan Zhi, explain to your parents everything you know about the [Elemental Divinity Scripture]. Leave nothing out. Fan Heng and Fan Hui; he has my command to cultivate the arts within the [Elemental Divinity Scripture] to the best of his ability and you are prohibited from doing anything that could affect his cultivation negatively. This means that you can't try to discourage fan Zhi from cultivating it or distract him by visiting more than the time he has set aside for you. He has spent three years preparing for this, so let him follow his plans because I have already gone over them and approved of them. Goodbye, I will talk to you later Fan Zhi."
With his voice resonating through the room faintly, Fan Cheng turns back around and continues to walk out the door of the room.
The physician, having stood witness to the proceedings of Fan Zhi's wake up, leaves the room immediately after bidding farewell to Fan Zhi's parents and requesting Fan Zhi to stay away from strenuous physical exercise for one or two days.
Soon after Fan Zhi explains his cultivation arts, Fan Heng and Fan Hui leave the room.
Sighing to himself, Fan Zhi sent his senses into his body to assess the changes that had happened. As his senses sweep through his body, not even a scratch is present within his body.
The only difference Fan Zhi can notice is his muscles turning a slightly incandescent colour, the same colour as the Heavenly Tribulations which he absorbed the power of.
Fan Zhi analysed his muscles carefully, comparing them to the [Perpetual Elementalist Art]'s section about the body's gradual adaption and attunement to the Elemental Energy present within Heavenly Tribulations. With a few minutes of research, Fan Zhi discovered something that was alarming in a way Fan Zhi was uncertain of yet.
From what it seemed like, Fan Zhi's body had shown twice the progress of attunement and integration with the Elemental Energy in the tribulations that he was meant to after a single tribulation on his three cultivation paths.
'Hmmm, maybe it is a result of the Heavenly Tribulations fusing and absorbing everything; I even absorbed the Heavenly Will present in the tribulations it seemed like? A fusion of Heavenly Tribulations will cause the tribulation to become exponentially more powerful, so that explains why it is further along… I also somehow managed to absorb the entire tribulations energy at the same time, as well as the Heavenly Will within the tribulation, and those three facts in conjunction must be the reason why I am progressing so far. Now, I should probably check my soul. If my suspicions are right, then that should be further along than expected as well.'
After discovering the reason for his larger than expected progress in his physique cultivation art, Fan Zhi turns his senses towards his soul.
Scanning it thoroughly, Fan Zhi was not surprised when he discovered that his soul was releasing the same level of incandescent light as his body was.
The arts contained within the [Elemental Divinity Scripture] all originated from the same creator, so they all can have their progress measured in the same way.
It seemed to Fan Zhi that the three cultivation arts were all meant to be cultivated together, with the [Elemental Devouring Art] just being an art that boosted the progress of the cultivator.
However, Fan Zhi didn't know that the [Elemental Devouring Art] wasn't necessary, as Heavenly Tribulations rewarded people that passed them in a similar way that the [Elemental Devouring Art] used the energy it devoured.
However, it seemed that the [Elemental Devouring Art] was far more efficient in the way it attuned the body and also can use potentially more energy than the Tribulation would do so depending on how much the cultivator could siphon.
Genuinely curious as to whether his last cultivation path got the same treatment as the other two, Fan Zhi decided to check his still unopened Energy Systems.
Investigating his Earth Energy System first, Fan Zhi found that similar to his soul and body; his entire system of acupoints, meridians and a dantian all glowed with incandescent light.
Moving onto his Sky and Heaven Energy Systems, Fan Zhi found the same thing was the case. Almost every living being, from a Human to a Divine Beast, had three Energy Systems within their body. Each Energy System consisted of 1 Dantian, 729 Meridians and 531,411 Acupoints. Each Meridian containing 729 Acupoints within them.
The names of these Energy Systems were named after the position of each System's Dantian within the body.
The Earth Dantian is located in the navel, the Sky Dantian is located in between the lungs and above the stomach; the Heaven Dantian is in the centre of the brain.
Only one race is not born with the three Energy Systems, the Mortal Humans.
However, the heavens are always fair and Mortal Humans can create their own Energy Systems. Mortal Humans are among the rarest of races in existence, given the fact that most offspring of Mortal Humans were made with another race instead of another Mortal Human.
Fan Zhi had read all of this, as it was included in some of the information the Inheritance Pearl had left for him because he was one of those rare Mortal Humans.
All of this information was confirmed by Fan Zhi as he scanned his body once more, counting each part of his three Energy Systems to make sure he had received reliable information.
Once he had finished investigating his body, Fan Zhi started to read the full [Elemental Divinity Scripture].
Although he had already read the [Elemental Divinity Scripture], Fan Zhi had only read up to the first Realm breakthrough because he assumed that he would do the same thing.
As Fan Zhi read the later stages of the scripture and compared it to his own current progress he groaned in frustration.
Of course, there was no free meal for him.